"What are we going to do?," said Izzo after practice on Thursday. "Do we set new standards on how hard we have to play or do we want to go back to the mediocre standards that we lived with where we are eighth, ninth in the league in field-goal percentage and seventh or sixth in rebounding? Are we going to do what we did, are we going to keep it there or are we going to pat ourselves on the back and go back to being good, real good, and not great?

"That is my battle cry. We all know that after a big game there are let downs a lot of the time. I think our leadership will be challenged. The coaches will be challenged. The players will be challenged in that respect."